RQ-21 BLACKJACK

Abstract

The RQ-21A BLACKJACK (formerly known as The Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (STUAS)) is a combined United States Navy (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) program that provides persistent maritime and land-based tactical Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance/Target Acquisition support for tactical level maneuver decisions and unit level force defense/force protection for Naval amphibious assault ships (multi-ship classes) and Navy and Marine land forces. This system will support Naval Missions such as building the Recognized Maritime Picture, Maritime Security Operations, Maritime Interdiction Operations, and provide support for Naval Units operating from sea/shore in Overseas Contingency Operations. This submission is the USNs portion of the program and has been coordinated with the USMC budget submission PE 0305239M (RQ-21A). The RQ-21A BLACKJACK system will continue to evolve and upgrade capabilities to satisfy capabilities shortfalls, new requirements, and reliability, maintainability and safety issues. Upgraded capabilities may include Navy Command and Control integration, Weapons Integration, Extended Range, Heavy Fuel Engine, Laser Designator, Frequency Agile Communications Relay, Digital Common Data Link, new launch and recovery methods, parts durability and manufacturability, and cyclic refresh of the Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) camera. RQ-21A BLACKJACK will also continue to expand its shipboard capability across new ship classes.

Document Details

• Document Type: Project
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2021
• Source ID: 3192_0305234N_7_1319_PB_2021

Tags

Readers

• Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
• Naval Mine Countermeasure Systems Development.

Technology Areas

• Autonomy
• Autonomy - UAVs
• Directed Energy
• Fully Networked C3
• Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control